Palidan Elementary School: Enrique Tello started it all

It was a man from Bokod, Benguet who started the existence of this Bakun primary school. The late Enrique Tello, who married Bil-eten Modawan, a native from Palidan, Bakun, Benguet, the location of the school, was the Bakun Mayor who took the initiative to put up the school.

It was said in the school’s history that after the end of World War II in 1945, children from Palidan who want to pursue education had to walk to other barangays to attend classes because Palidan had no schools in their area due to the lack of school buildings.

It was at this point that Mayor Tello, who made education as one of his priorities, called up a meeting with the elders of the place to discuss the need to put up a school building for the children.

They community agreed, with each Sitio contributing indigenous materials like “atep”, “pungo”, bamboo, and “waka” and constructed the “Bahay Kubo” type school building with their labor through the “Tinulong” System.

That’s when the school operations started, with over 70 boys becoming its first ever students.

The school buildings and compound was later improved with the help of the late Governor Bado Dangwa and the Lepanto Mining Corporation.

It was Mayor Enrique Tello who got the ball rolling for this small town school.